"You see her with the curling iron, and she touches it to make sure that it's hot," Angela Persaud said. "And then when he jumps because it burns him, she continues to touch his foot again and then goes for his hand."

The parents immediately called police, and Nxumalo was taken into custody.

"You can tell that she's telling him, 'That's what happens when you don't listen,' and then she hugs him," she said. "So she's playing these warped mind games with my child, and it's the most disgusting thing I've ever witnessed in my life."

Investigators say she later admitted that she became frustrated with Xander and tried to discipline him, which Angela Persaud says it outrageous.

"They were at his desk writing letters, and after about 10 minutes of it, his attention span broke and he wanted to do something else," she said. "She got mad that he didn't want to sit and continue to do it. So she's reprimanding him...she did say, 'It was just very frustrating, and he was being bad earlier.' She said he hit her earlier. Well, he's going to be 3. You know, there's a reason why they call it 'the terrible twos.' They do that a lot...There was no way that I was going to allow that to happen. I told her immediately that I'm going to call the police."

Nxumalo is charged with two counts of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child.